Trademarks

Mauritius is enjoying a year full of changes and progress, which began with the Industrial Property Act 2019 entering into force on January 31, 2022.

Currently, Mauritius is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and a signatory to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Universal Copyright Convention, and the Berne Convention.

Congratulations to Daniel Reis Nobre, Managing Partner at Inventa and a Brands for a Better Society Committee member, for his recognition as one of the INTA High-Performing Committee Members of 2022. His commitment and participation in various committee initiatives were highlighted, as well as the promotion of communication initiatives.

The Inventa IP Review magazine highlights some of the IP news of the previous year, written by our team, through opinion articles, interviews or press releases. We cover relevant topics that have marked the field of innovation, trademarks, patents or intellectual property rights, mainly in Europe, Africa and Asia.

The 2022 edition shares useful information on the protection of trademarks in different jurisdictions, the entry into the Unitary Patent system and also the impact that may arise from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the IP field.

The World Trademark Review (WTR) announced the WTR 1000 - The World's Leading Trademark Professionals for the year 2023, recognizing the world's top trademark-leading firms and individuals.

We are proud to announce that Inventa is once again one of the top trademark leading firms in Portugal and Nigeria. WTR highlights Inventa's expertise in the fields of prosecution and strategy.

On February 6, the government of Mauritius deposited its instrument of accession to the Madrid and the Hague System which entered into force on May 6, 2023.

Madrid Protocol: From May 2023, trademark applicants in Mauritius will be able to secure the protection of their trademarks in all member countries, through a single registration application.

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana is an African country bordering Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The geographical position of Botswana is both an advantage due to its strategic location for commercial purposes and a disadvantage, considering the enormous opportunities for the smuggling of counterfeiting products and services.

A European Union Trademark (EUTM) application can be refused on several grounds. One of those is laid down in article 8, No. 1, (b) of the EU trademark Regulation (EUTMR), consisting in the existence of a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public in the territory in which the earlier trademark is protected, due to its identity with, or similarity to, the earlier trademark and the identity or similarity of the goods or services covered by the trademarks.

To understand how trade dresses are being safeguarded in Europe, we need to answer the question, what is “trade dress”?

We can define trade dress as a set of characteristics – not only visual, but also sensorial – that allow a consumer to distinguish a particular product or service from the others that coexist in the market. These characteristics can include the way some products are displayed in a store, furniture patterns, ambient music, a smell and so on. Also, a particular packing or product shape can be understood as a trade dress.

Published in IP Stars, Inês Sequeira and Diana Pereira offer an overview of the recent legislative changes that have been contributing to expanding the definition of a trademark at OAPI, allowing some categories of non-conventional trademarks to become more widely accepted for registration in recent times.

Read the full article here.